Home Movie Day is an international celebration of home movies and amateur cinema.

This week on The Home Movie Legacy Project our show was about Home Movie Day, an event that happens every October in celebration of personal films, local history, revisiting eras gone by and amateur filmmaking. The event provides an opportunity for families to screen their films, learn some basic preservation tips and how to access and share their home movies so that they may be enjoyed!

With over 87 venues in 19 countries on 4 continents last year, Home Movie Day has grown each year from its initial slate of two dozen locations across the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and Japan in 2003. Most events will be occurring on October 18th worldwide. Some venues will have their events earlier or later in October, November or December.

The Los Angeles Event will be held at the Goethe-Institute Los Angeles, 5750 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 100 L.A. CA, 90036located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile. The public is encouraged to bring 8mm, Super 8 mm, 16mm and VHS. Drop off your media @ 11 AM. See your film projected on the big screen noon – 4.

7PM – Watch Eastern European Home Movies from the Wende Museum with Live Music!

Hosted by Kate Dollenmayer, audiovisual archivist at the Wende Museum.

“Home movies provide invaluable records of our families and our communities: they document vanished storefronts, questionable fashions, adorable pets, long-departed loved ones, and neighborhoods in transition. Many people still possess these old reels or tapes, passed down from generation to generation, but lack the projection equipment to view them properly and safely,” stated Skip Elsheimer, president of the Center for Home Movies. “That’s where Home Movie Day comes in: the public brings the films, and volunteers inspect them, project them, and offer tips on storage, preservation, and video transfer—and free of charge, in most cities. And best of all, you get to watch them with an enthusiastic audience, equally hungry for local history,” added Elsheimer.

The Center for Home Movies is a nonprofit organization supported through grants and donations. CHM’s primary mission is to promote, preserve and educate the public about amateur films. To learn more about CHM, visit www.centerforhomemovies.org.